The following is a tabulation of some prior art that presently appears relevant:
U.S. patentsPat. No.Kind CodeIssue DatePatentee3,484,970ADec. 23, 1969Berlinsky3,550,296ADec. 29, 1970Castagna3,800,453AApr. 2, 1974Kroes3,939,587AFeb. 24, 1976Weststrom4,031,644AJun. 28, 1977Rogers4,102,071AJul. 25, 1978D'Arcy4,567,528AJan. 28, 1986Wilman et al.4,663,873AMay 12, 1987Shinbrot4,673,286AJun. 16, 1987Shinbrot4,870,258ASep. 26, 1989Mochizuki et al.4,916,839AApr. 17, 1990Nakanishi4,942,482AJul. 17, 1990Kakinuma et al.5,471,277ANov. 28, 1995Fujioka at al.5,612,791AMar. 18, 1997Turner et al.5,640,252AJun. 17, 1997Turner at al.5,760,925AJun. 2, 1998Saund et al.8,017,848B2Sep. 13, 2011Manera
Foreign patent DocumentsForeign Doc. No.CountryKind CodePub. DatePatenteeEP 1438835European B2Jul. 21, 2004Mandel et al.UnionCN101854460 BChinaBMay 15, 2013Peng Xuan
Many public and private institutions have a need to digitize their large collections of books and bound documents. Digitizing such documents would reduce the cost of providing and maintaining physical storage space required for the documents and would allow the document contents to be made widely available over computer networks. Traditional digitization of books using a standard flatbed scanner requires manual intervention for turning individual pages during the digitization process. Manually turning the pages and scanning each page of a book is labor intensive and time-consuming.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system capable of reliably converting large numbers of bound document pages into digital files. Various devices and systems exist but they are generally mechanically complex and costly. Various devices for automatically turning the pages of a book are known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 3,484,970 to Berlinsky et al. (1969) shows an automatic sheet turner using a rotating vacuum head. U.S. Pat. No. 3,550,296 to Castagna (1970) shows a page turning device using pivoted suction arms. U.S. Pat. No. 4,916,839 to Nakanishi (1990) shows a page turning method and apparatus using a friction member to buckle an uppermost page. European Patent No. EP 1 438 835 B2 to Mandel et al. (2002) shows a book page turning system including a system for flattening and holding the pages of the open book. Chinese Patent No. CN101854460 B to Peng Xuan (2013) shows a dual book scanning system using a rotating glass sheet and four elevator platforms which press the books against the glass sheet.
The aforementioned devices and systems are generally mechanically complex and expensive. There is a need for an affordable solution which can be purchased by smaller institutions or individuals, such as researchers.